Adrenaline Alley, Corby
5th and 6th September 2008
Sequence Bosworth double flip grab – Jerome Loughran
Vert: Andy Horsley
Street Photos: Lee Johnson
As you’ll already know by watching the footage that is appearing, the level of skating that was on display for the first ever UKSA Championships in Corby on the 6-7th was incredible and was over and above anything that I have ever seen in this country. You can see for yourself the utterly piss take quality of the skaters, who despite some pretty gnarly injuries still managed to put on some of the most impressive skating that this country has seen recently, which by today’s standards is no joke.
The fine people of the UKSA and Adrenaline Alley managed to put on a seemingly hitch-free weekend, cramming in 150 UK pro skaters, which, considering the time scale was no mean feat. The qualifiers went off. Every knew that they were here to represent their sponsors in front of almost the entire skate community and to try for the big money purse that was on offer. It’s not surprising that it was enough to spur everyone into pulling out the very best – everyone gave their all.
Some notable skaters that shone through the qualifiers were Cliché’s latest addition, John Tanner, who skated smoothly into the semi finals unfortunately picking up an ankle injury, which stopped him getting any further. Death’s Rob Smith put on his gnarly boots and climbed onto the highest part of the park to jump out of Noseblunt into the highest ramp in the street course in the middle of his heat, causing the whole crowd to erupt which has got to be worth a space in the writeup.
Onto the finals:
‘Street Pete’ King qualified for the finals in both street and vert and used the whole street course throwing out 360 ollies, bluntslides and grinds up the rails as well as long feebles and feeble 180out slung into runs after a full day of vert skating. Serious business.
Blueprint‘s Ben Nordberg skated well with his usual asleep-at-the-wheel lazy style with nollie bigspins BS Noseblunt reverts, FS bigspins over the hips and hardflips all executed looking like he was about to nod off. Team mate Neil Smith powered through to the finals with switch 5050s down the big rail and nollie heelflips booted over the funbox and took a respectable 8th.
Winner of the best trick, Dan Wileman, was killing it with some seriously tech moves to be pulling out in a jam. Consistent is not the word. He finished up with 360 flips to 5-0 along and down the ledge for the best trick jam and took the money home with a massive ollie to FS Tailslide bigspin out at breakneck speed. Tom Harrison was blasting massive tuckknees and 360flips all over the place as well as flip nose manuals ending up 6th over.
The top 5 though really took the piss. Dave Snaddon came up with some serious power moves which was to be expected after his Savoir Faire part. Flip back lips to fakie in a contest run after a weekend of skating is definitely not fannying around.
Grove took his shirt off and attacked the course with his usual disregard for his own personal safety. BS ollie from the kicker to flat, BS Flips and ollie over the funbox to BS 5050 down the hubba along with a weekend of gnarly skating secured him 4th.
From the second the final three pushed off everyone in the park could see that they were going off the hook and wanted the top prize. Chris Oliver, Kris Vile and Ross McGouran took the top places and went mental, skating like men possessed. Kris was skating with a previously injured ankle against doctors orders and still got some staggering moves notched up with Flips to fakie over the Koston block and bigspin boardslides standing out.
Ross McGouran skated fast with incredible board control landing almost everything he tried the whole weekend. Kickflip Nosegrinds on ledges are impressive enough at the best of times, but doing them while avoiding 4 other high speed skaters in a jam format and keeping your cool is something else. I can’t even begin to describe the BS 360kickflip over the hip but I’ll have a go anyway: spontaneous, the first go, completely out of nowhere and bolts perfect, it’s easily one of the best things I have ever seen firsthand on a skateboard. I watched with the rest of the crowd in amazement as everyone in the second final heat blew the roof off.
Chris Oliver followed up an amazing year and an incredible video part by claiming the top prize at the first ever UKSA Championships. Everything he tried was claimed and he made everything look like he was fucking about. BS disaster reverts on the biggest quarter, BS Double flips, FS Flips, Flip Melons, 360Flips, Bluntslides, Kickflips up the kickers to the roll ins.
I’ll be honest, I missed the Vert qualifiers but managed to make it over to the ramp for the final and I’m pleased to report that the vert skating community didn’t disappoint. I’ve skated that ramp, and by skated it, I mean, pumped up to about a foot below the coping from the flat bottom and almost fouled myself looking over the edge. So to see those guys, tearing it a new one was pretty impressive in itself, even more so when you consider the age of some of them. Its very easy to forget how old someone is when they are blasting 8 foot airs out of the top of a 14 ft ramp and spinning back to back 540’s on every surface which is a testament to the level that the new breed of British vert skating is at. There’s no denying this was incredible.
Paul Luc Roncetti, Sam Beckett and 13 yr old Sam Bosworth proved that Vert is not purely for the “old dudes who’ve been in it since the 80s” and made everything look like they were skating a 3ft mini instead of Corby’s dirty great vert beast. Christ Airs, Alleyoop flip melons, 540’s and Caballerial flip grabs all made appearances and stoked the crowd out. I was virtually speechless at the level that they were skating at. It’s definitely not easy skating in front of hundreds of people but it seemed like they were all having a laugh and going for it which can only be a good thing.
Pete King barged it with switch lip tricks and huge airs progressing to the final in both street and vert events and being the only person to do so. Dave Allen was hucking out some crowd pleasing inverts and handplants, as was Sean Goff, who has been holding it down in Vert for over 20 years and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
A personal highlight for me was seeing Andy Scott. Back Tailslide shove it out, Sugarcanes and Backside Crailslides reverting the wrong way all got the crowd screaming and really highlighted how good you have to be to skate something that big especially in a jam.
I heard from a fairly reliable source that over the course of the two days there were more 540s performed than in the rest of British skating history before it. British skateboarding is definitely not fucking about.
Trying to write everything that happened into such a small space is the hardest thing as there is only so much that you can watch but the level of skating throughout the entire weekend was unbelievable so just watch the videos on this page. Anyone that thinks that British Skateboarding is going to be lolling about in the shadow of America is in for a serious wake up call if this comp is anything to go by.
My voice is still hoarse nearly a week later, I’m exhausted but I wouldn’t change a thing and I’ll be at the front of the queue for next year. If for nothing else than to see where they can go from here.
Thanks to everyone that made it possible and especially all at the UKSA.
